Misuse of Nouns

There are 28 types with 507 tokens of noun misuse in the overall V-N miscollocations by Chinese ESL learners (cf. Table 4.8). In the noun misuse, 8 types with 104 tokens are found to be in the category of incomplete noun phrases. The other 20 types with 403 tokens are basically comprised by various background factors and would be inspected further in the discussion part.

Table 4.8 Types of Noun-Based V-N Miscollocations

Aspects of Misuse

Noun-Based V-N Misuse Types

Noun-Based V-N Misuse Tokens

Incomplete Noun Phrases 8 (29%) 104 (21%)

Others 20 (71%) 403 (79%)

Total 28 507

4.4.1 Incomplete Noun Phrases

Table 4.9 shows the types of V-N miscollocations whose nouns are erroneous due to their incomplete meanings. The most misused one is * learn computer well.

Computer, in OALD, means "an electronic machine that can store, organize and find

information, do calculations and control other machines." It's clear that one cannot just "learn a machine" but "learn how to use the machine." Based on the examples in

the BNC shown by the Sketch-Diff Interface and the suggestions from the COCA, computer skills should be used instead of computer alone so that the meaning would

be clear.

The second miscollocation is *buy the lottery. According to the OALD, if you want to purchase this kind of merchandise, the right way to say it should be buy a lottery ticket. On the other hand, if one really hits the jackpot, the expression is win

the lottery. The difference is officially stated in the dictionaries and therefore the

lottery alone cannot stand for the noun phrase a lottery ticket.

Table 4.9 Types of Noun Misuse: Incomplete Noun Phrases

No. Incorrect Noun Suggested Noun(s) V-N Miscollocations Frequency

1 computer computer skills want to learn computer well 19

2 lottery a lottery ticket buy the lottery again 17

3 student student’s learning/ judgment cultivate students and help them 17

4 spring a hot spring bath take a hot spring 15

5 computer computer science study computer in the future 12

6 pollution pollution problem solve the pollution 9

7 mail the meaning of mail don't forget conventional mails

while writing an email 8

8 teacher teacher's guidance appreciated my teacher 7

Total 104

The third most misused is *cultivate students. A definition of cultivate in LDOCE 5, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (5th Edition), is "to work hard to develop a particular skill, attitude, or quality." As a result, cultivate students' learning or judgment would be a better way of conveying the concept that a student is

taught for certain part of his or her abilities to be enhanced.

The fourth most misused is *take a hot spring. Spring in OALD is "a place where water comes naturally to the surface from under the ground." Therefore, a hot spring is a place, and a hot spring bath should be the correct expression for the

intended meaning instead.

The fifth one is *study computer. Like the most misused one *learn computer well, computer just indicates the machine. If one really wants to study the related

fields about computers, the right expression should be study computer science or something else.

Generally, noun-based V-N miscollocations in this sub-section reveal learners' examples in which their intended meanings turned obscure and twisted owing to the partial missing of the noun phrase. A more elaborate introduction of noun phrases indeed should be heeded when teachers explain Verb-Noun collocations in class.

4.4.2 Other Noun Pairs

Table 4.10 indicates the 20 types with 403 tokens of V-N miscollocations based on noun-pair misuse. The most misused one is *change work, while change jobs is the corpus-based suggestion. Though the definitions for both work and job are quite similar, generally we refer to job for an additional sense of nominal category for the

work we do for a living, while the word "work" mostly merely refers to a more abstract aspect of things we do for our job on a daily basis.

The second and third most misused ones are *take a travel and *have a good travel. These are rather obvious errors. According to OALD, when travel is used as a

noun, the examples are like travel expense, travel agency, etc. As a result, take a trip/journey and have a good trip would be the only correct usages for the intended

meanings of *take a travel and *have a good travel.

The fourth one is *study lessons. Actually, the contexts for this entry in the Chinese ESL learner corpus were all like "In my school I studied all my lessons well...," and so on. The meanings of the word lesson in these examples, consequently,

should be that of the word subject. The correct V-N collocations should be that I studied all the subjects at school well. Since the Chinese translations for lesson and

subject sometimes could be confusing, a mistake for ESL learners to use them

interchangeably is understandable.

The fifth most misused one is *rent a department to be my home. Department, as OALD points out, is "a section of a large organization such as a government, business, university, etc." The right word choice, based on orthographical features, should be apartment instead of department. Rent an apartment, hence, is the intended V-N

collocation.

Table 4.10 Types of Noun Misuse: Other-Noun Pairs

No. Incorrect Noun Suggested Noun(s) V-N Miscollocations Frequency

1 work job change work 124

2 travel trip/ journey take a travel 90

3 travel trip/ journey have a good travel 55

4 lesson subjects studied my lessons well 26

5 department apartment rent an department to be my home 15

6 ability skills practice your ability 14

7 color fun add colors to our life 13

8 mind character cultivate children's mind 11

9 sight view/ vision/ horizons open their sight 8

10 window view/ vision/ horizons widen the window of the world 7

11 sight view/ vision/ horizons widen your sight 6

12 sight view/ vision/ horizons expand your sight 6

13 sight eye/ attention attract the readers’ sight 5

14 travel trip plan a world travel 5

15 color fun lose the color in our life 3

16 fame reputation improve their fame 3

17 heart eye/ attention the ad just caught her heart 3

18 mail letter finished an English mail 3

19 manner manners/ etiquette emphasize the manner 3

20 sight view/ vision/ horizons broaden our sight 3

Total 403

This sub-section shows those V-N miscollocations made by other noun misuse.

Without a direct clue like the ones in the other V-N misuse categories, the errors in this section could be hard to explain at first. Nevertheless, with the background of ESL learners' L1, that is, Chinese, a more reasonable speculation and correction could be made and double-checked with the corpus data. More misuse in this section would be examined in a different manner later in the discussion part.